On 1/6/07, Leigh Meyers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Surely not divine winds...
Japan's Neocons
http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/69.php?id=236#
<snip>
In Japan, a loose clique of Japanese neoconservative politicians in
their forties and fifties with right-wing views and, often,
international academic or work experience, as well as loud cretins in
the media who made Bill O'Reilly of Fox News look quiet and thoughtful –
embraced the Armitage report as a blueprint for Japan's political and
diplomatic future. The Japanese neocons, were, at heart, xenophobic
nationalists. But they agreed to a Faustian bargain with the US because
when the time came to confront China (and many of Japan's right wingers
seemed to welcome all-out war) Japan would need America on its side not,
like the 1930s and 1940s, against it.
<snip>
Upon assuming office, Abe was faced with his first test in Asian
diplomacy. During a trip to meet with the leaders of China and South
Korea, North Korea tested a nuclear device. Suddenly, the Japanese
neocons arguments over history and domestic issues were far less
important than the present. One of those was whether Japan's neocons
would now push for a public discussion on what was once unthinkable, the
acquisition of nuclear weapons. Abe rushed to assure a nervous
international community that Japan had no intention of doing so and the
discussion remained confined primarily to right-wing blogs and websites.
But with a nuclear North Korea now at its doorstep and the most hawkish,
conservative government in recent memory, the world remains rightly
concerned about whether or not Japan's neocons, like their American
counterparts, will lead the country down a path to disaster.
Eric Johnston
There's nothing "neo" about Tokyo's pro-Washington policy. The
bargain was struck right after WW2, and it has had the same foreign
policy -- i.e., more or less adopting Washington's foreign policy as
its own -- ever since. I don't know how the LDP, a slave to
Washington, manage to pass off itself as "nationalist."
Japan needs left-nationalist policy -- backed up by nukes and/or
politico-economic-military alliance with China and Russia. Then, it
can develop a new relation with the Middle East on which it is the
most dependent among the rich nations.
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>
